video

For the past few weeks I’ve been informed by Members that videos in the Library are appearing with the locked “Private” icon from Vimeo. It’s taken me a few weeks to really dig in and investigate and it turns out this all stems from my cancellation of Vimeo Pro. It threw the entire privacy settings for a loop on Vimeo thus locking everyone out of a lot of the library items. I have gone in and reset most everything back to Wistia and all seems to be working well now. The rest of the titles will move over to Wistia...

I've always been a Monkees fan and I must say I forgot about this clip from their 1968 film Head. In this scene Davy Jones dances with future 80s pop star Toni Basil (who's way more talented than just Hey, Mickey!) The video is a triply segment with great camera work but incredible editing. Watch this for juxtaposition and rhythm. I'm going to have to try this out sometime soon. This was all done in camera and in edit.. no visual FX here. An Incredible Music Video from 1968 Republished by Richard Harrington...

Metus technology continues its commitment to extracting the last drop of performance out of your PC hardware, by adding CUDA support for GPU based H.264 encoding! With Geforce 690 GPU, 6 channels of 1080i H.264 video can be captured in real time! GPU accelerated encoding started to be supported by Metus INGEST in 2012, with Intel QuicSynch support, which is an on-board GPU technology available with some PC motherboards and Intel CPUs. While enabling low cost hardware to do multi channel HD capture, this technology requires that the motherboard and CPU needs to be compatible with it. Now, GPU acceleration...

If you plan to shoot a lot of chroma key, you may invest in a dedicated chroma keying system. We use a Reflecmedia Chroma Key system frequently. This approach relies on a LED disc attached to the camera lens that reflects light on a special fabric containing millions of glass beads that reflect the lower powered light and create an even-colored surface. Systems like this cost more, but are popular for their ease of use and portability. The system saves us a lot of time and money during the editing stages. Keying with Reflecmedia Republished by Richard Harrington...

The use of chroma (or color) keying software has gotten much easier in postproduction. The most common techniques involve shooting talent against a blue or green screen and then replacing that colored background with a new one. This process is a staple in filmmaking special effects and has made its way into web video as well. In order to succeed with chroma key, you want to pay close attention to shooting and lighting. When shooting chroma key footage, be sure to turn off all the Auto settings on your camera. This means no auto-exposure, auto-white balance or auto-focus. If any...

DP BestFlow - Exchanging Video Information with XML from ASMP dpBestflow on Vimeo . I show you how to take information about your nonlinear editing project from one NLE application to another using XML. From the dpBestflow.org project. Exchanging Video Information with XML Republished by Richard Harrington...

A few folks commented about my desktop pattern at a recent conference. It seems the old 'Indian head' pattern evokes some memories in many audience members. Well the version I had comes from a Russian designer named Art. Lebedev. You'll find it and several other pieces of artwork on his posters page . For the test pattern, scroll down to the bottom and you'll find it in the right column. All are free to download. Retro TV: Indian Head Wallpaper Republished by Richard Harrington...

When you're working in the Timeline, chances are you'll use multiple audio tracks. Over time you'll have interviews, environmental sounds, music, and sound effects. And they all add up. The natural tendency of most editors is to start to raise the volume across the board, making each element louder than the next. There s a lot of confusion when looking at the Audio Meter. Unlike the analog world, you DO NOT want to mix to 0 db. What this means is that you ll likely need to adjust audio clip by clip in the Timeline. For a digital mix, you...

I found a pretty good list of tips for shooting better video. This list is excerpted from a new book (one I didn't write). Get a closing shot. Get an establishing shot. Shoot plenty of video. Adhere to the rule of thirds. Keep your shots steady. Follow the action. Use trucking shots. Find unusual angles. Lean forward or backward. Get wide and tight shots. Shoot matched action. Get sequences. Avoid fast pans and snap zooms. Shoot cutaways. Use lights. Grab good sound bites. Get plenty of natural sound. Plan your shoot. You'll find details for each point in the list...

There have been numerous discussions lately about digital delivery of programming and spots in the broadcast world. As of this writing, we are preparing for one of the largest annual non-broadcast surgical video programs anywhere. While we are experts at working with surgeons to craft teaching videos for an audience of their peers, and there are numerous local production companies with similar expertise (I got two videos from a fellow COW - always good to interact with others in the barnyard!), most of the videos come from surgeons themselves. Of these, some are produced on laptops (ie, iMovie, Premiere, Vegas)...

All, I think we have all known for a while that broadcasting as we know it is dying. People now have many ways to access media these days, catch-up on demand services, streaming on websites etc etc. However for me last night this was well and truly proved when I was watching an instructional video on YouTube on how to do complicated things on YouTube. What was so earth shattering about that I hear you say? It was written, presented & uploaded by an eight year old. Peter...

I know I tell a lot of stories about the old days, but this doesn't mean I'm 100 years old. Just wanted to get that cleared up for those of you keeping a tally of how many times I mention 1" tape and CMX edit controllers. Now back to our regularly scheduled program, already in progress... For those of you just joining us, welcome to the Mike Cohen Creative COW 100th Blogiversary . "100 blog posts? So what," you might be saying. Well I try to put a little bit of my personality and philosophy into every post. For me...

I have often wondered what motion picture audiences would think of film-acquired images if digital imaging had come first. Would the grain structure, the motion blur, the organic judder, and the characteristic soft shoulder inherent in the celluloid medium be lauded, or would these characteristics be labeled simply as artifacts? Would, for instance, the limited dynamic range and sharpness of the digital format be viewed as necessary characteristics to be duplicated or mimicked in film, or would they have been seen, from the beginning, as an artifact to be eliminated by means of research and development. Would film have even...

The past 7 days have been spent preparing for a big convention that we participate in every year. our responsibilities include processing roughly 150 videos, mostly produced by outside entities (doctors) and about a dozen from our shop. We decided this year to finally do away with DVCAM tape and do all of the projection in about 15 half-day sessions via MPG2 files on hard drives. We created a simple html launcher and carefully organized the files by session. The next step was to review the MPG2 files to ensure that they are appropriately representing the original quality. The original...

When venturing into the world of short filmmaking it can be difficult to know where to start. Whether you are a recent media graduate or completely new to the idea of making your own films, the sheer volume of other products out there on the festival circuit and on the internet (most notably Youtube) mean you can only add your fish to an already ram packed pond. Considering how much influence mainstream cinema has on many new filmmakers it can be a near impossible task to think of new, engaging and original stories and concepts. The ‘next to nothing’ budget...

In this, the first episode of My Video Blog, I give a brief rundown of the studies and training that got me to my job at Cine-Med creating compelling medical education in the form of video, multimedia, distance learning, books and marketing for health professionals. In future episodes we'll talk about travel, workflow, project management and some highlights of medical media production. Thanks for reading...and watching. Mike Cohen...

Lighting is a key element in creating compelling images. The most effective films have always used lighting as a tool to evoke emotion. This video features many of the best in the field of cinema lighting and is full of illuminating commmentary. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6snm0mHkfSE...

Tim Robinson is the Corporate Video Editor for Pride Mobility Products Corp. Makers of the Jazzy Powerchair, Scooters, Lift Chairs and other mobility products! At our company we’ve been strictly a PC world. When the new head of IT asked us, “Why don’t you guys run macs? My daughter’s graphic design school runs nothing but macs!” We had to explain his predecessor strictly prohibited using macs because his IT staff could not “support” them. Before he even finished the sentence “What if we bought you guys…” we excitedly shouted ‘YES!’ The transition was not easy for both IT and later...

Today everyone is either doing the earth-friendly program or is looking to see if you are doing your part. Sometimes, going green can be costly. Here at Taylore Studios we have made some of those changes and we have actually saved some money doing it. Here are a few tips on how we did it. Maybe you can benefit from it as well. 1. Those crazy swirly bulbs. At some point I noticed that we were using a lot of incandescent light bulbs. 100, 60 & 40 watt varieties were all over the studio for just the general lighting. I...

Cue announcer. This week we are holding a medical conference - live from the Miami Beach. We started planning this meeting 18 months ago. Many doctors, both presenting and attending, giving lectures, doing panel discussions and showing videos. What's all this have to do with Video Production? Let me count the ways. 5:30am Woke up. Felt pretty tired. Too much Sake maybe? The ocean view room (iMac in every room!) helps get me motivated. 6:30am Arrive in Fontaine Ballroom. This ballroom previously hosted Elvis, Sinatra and the rest of the Rat pack. It is a natural conclusion that a surgical...

Friday - 3pm I'm sitting at my desk minding my own business (a rarity). Cindy-Loo (not her real name): Mike, can you call Carmela (not her real name) on her cel, she needs you to help with a video conference. Me (my real name): Sure, do you have the number? By the way, what video conference is this? The one at 4am tomorrow? Cindy-Loo: I don't know, and I don't know. Just call her. After getting the number, I enter it into my cell, then call her from a land line. Carmela: Hello? Me: Hi, it's Mike. What's up? Carmela:...